Tag: plaque

Whenever our bodies experience an injury the natural reaction is to create inflammation. This inflammation can happen anywhere within the body. Probably for most people they recognize Inflammation happening within their joints, but inflammation can happen anywhere there is an injury. It can happen within the skin, and it can even happen inside our arteries. Researchers are well aware that inflammation inside the arteries is a major contributor to aging and cardiovascular disease.

There really is no doubt about it plaque within the arteries can lead to a heart attack or a stroke. Researchers used to believe that it was the accumulation of plaque in the arteries that eventually led to the narrowing of the arteries and to a cut off of blood supply. While a heart attack or stroke could happen this way it usually happens much differently.

Scientist are starting to believe that there is such a thing as vulnerable plaque. Vulnerable plaque is a type of plaque inside the artery that can easily break away and that can lodge with an artery causing a heart attack or stroke. Usually, the plaque will become lodged in an area of the artery that has been narrowed by an accumulation of plaque.

It is interesting to note that now researchers are finding people who have a heart attack or stroke do not have arteries that are severely narrowed by plaque! They now believe that this so-called vulnerable plaque which can be buried deep inside the arterial wall is causing problems. It does not bulge out and actually blocks blood flow rather it breaks away from the wall of the artery. Researchers are looking at inflammation within the arteries to try and discover how inflammation can affect the arteries and be responsible for a heart attack or stroke.

What they have discovered was that inflammation actually leads to the production of “soft plaque” or as called earlier vulnerable plaque. Scientists have also found that vulnerable plaque is more than debris within the artery. It is actually filled with different types of cells that assist the body with blood clotting.

When there is inflammation of the body and it is combined with other stresses, like hypertension, it can cause the thin layer of covering to crack and bleed. This leads to a spilling out of the vulnerable plaque into our bloodstream. This starts a chain reaction of sticky cytokines on our arterial walls capturing blood cells which rush to the site. These cells can then call together and form a clot which can then block an artery.

According to the Mayo Clinic, one of the plaques can rupture during a heart attack and spill cholesterol and other substances into the bloodstream. “A blood clot forms at the site of the rupture,” it says. “If large enough, the clot can completely block the flow of blood through the coronary artery.”

If you listen to the audio recording of “The Assassin Within “Dr. Joe Pendergrast addresses this problem regarding plaque within the arteries. He talks about how some researchers believe that nitric oxide is able to push plaque to the outside of the arterial wall. If this is true, and I believe it is, you can see the importance of supplementing with Cardio Cocktail. Cardio Cocktail is able to provide the body what it needs to produce nitric oxide at optimal levels.